OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL
AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY.
EDITORIAL NOTES AND COMMENT.
RECOLLECTIONS OF ROYALTY.
Elsewhere in this issue reference has
been made to an ad-
dress delivered by our late Secretary,
Emilius Oviatt Randall,
before the Kit-Kat club, entitled
"Recollections of Royalty".
This address will long be remembered by
those who heard it as
one of the most interesting and
entertaining every delivered be-
fore a Columbus gathering. It was
published in the April num-
ber of the Kit-Kat for 1918. The
reader who peruses one or two
of its pages will not lay it aside until
he has read it through.
Excellent as it is in printed form, it
lacks, of course, something
of the charm of Mr. Randall's personality and his inimitable
presentation. On the evening of its
delivery he was at his best.
A year or more previous to this date he
had been in failing
health and some of his close friends
feared that he would not
regain his former strength and be able
to actively participate in
the numerous societies to which he
belonged. On the evening
that he presented his
"Recollections of Royalty", however, he
brought to his assembled friends of the
Kit-Kat Club and numer-
ous guests not only the rich treat and
rare humor of his paper
but joy at beholding him again at his
best and apparently re-
stored to health and vigor.
Mr. Randall in company with his father
visited the Paris
Exposition of 1867. In speaking of this
he said:
"The international expositions of
later years have surpassed it in
size, but none of them have been so
artfully organized, so admirably pro-
portioned in its several parts, so
perfectly adjusted to facilitate the display
of the character and culture of each
country. All eyes were turned
toward France, all roads led to Paris;
it outrivalled the 'Field of the
Cloth of Gold'; never before nor since,
such a concourse of distinguished
guests; within three months, the Emperor
Napoleon and Empress
Eugenie entertained three Emperors,
eight Kings, one Sultan, one Shah,
one Viceroy, five Queens, twenty-four
Princes, seven Princesses, nine
(154)
Ohio Archaeological and Historical
Quarterly. 155
Grand Dukes, two Grand Duchesses, two
Arch-Dukes, five Dukes, two
Duchesses, and last but not least one
member of the Kit-Kat Club. It is
said a 'cat may look at a king;'
certainly a Kit-Katter is no less privileged
and your writer begs to submit his
report as your special correspondent
on the spot."
This introduction he followed with a
glowing account.
"This comment," he tells us
reveals that he "was then in this
susceptible period of youth-the
threshold of seventeen-embryo
beau Brummel interval between the callow
chrysalis and the full-
fledged male butterfly." In his
diary, which he carefully kept,
he had written, "Here I notice the
little boys are gentlemen, and
many of them -not near as tall as
I- wear stovepipe or plug
hats and carry little canes." Then
follow his impressions of the
distinguished rulers and scions of
royalty, all of whom he saw,
with scintillating comment on their
later careers and the relega-
tion of many of them to humble uncrowned
and untitled estate,
which he humorously describes as the
"International Society of
Royal Hoboes." As a sample of the
speaker's descriptive powers
we here quote his impressions of
Napoleon Third and his beauti-
ful Empress, as he had seen them a
little over half a century
before:
"Our introduction to the observed
of all observers was happily
staged. It was a gala occasion as,
floating in the ceaseless tide of sight-
seers on the Champs Elysees, one merry
afternoon, soon after our arrival,
the bands suddenly ceased their brazen
blare; the hum of the multitudin-
ous voices was hushed as there rang out
the shrill notes of a silver-
tongued trumpet; a tumultuous rush to
the street curb; a moment of
breathless silence; a squadron of
mounted soldiery; six milk-white horses
in glittering harness, bestridden by
red-coated, white breeched postillions;
a low open barouche, in the rear seat of
which smiling and graciously
bowing, were the Third Napoleon and his
beautiful Empress Eugenie;
they were attired in street custom, he
in the conventional black frock
coat and tile silk hat, she in plain,
walking dress, a small turban shaped
hat, which gave almost full view of her
dark auburn hair, a ringlet of
which, obstrusively large it seemed to
me, like a golden rope hung down
upon her shoulder; her features were
surpassingly attractive, not only for
their physical beauty but for the sweet,
charming expression indicative
of her disposition and gracious manner
which so won the adoration of
her people and the immediate favor of
all beholders. The Emperor, as
I noted him from this and many other
opportunities of observation, was
short and stocky, rather Roman necked,
large headed and heavy featured;
156 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
his countenance betokened a sensual
rather than an intellectual quality of
character; he had not inherited the
Napoleon cast of face; he was Beau-
harnais, not Bonaparte; the forehead was
broad, the nose prominent,
suggesting a certain German type; the
eyes small, grayish-blue in color,
rather expressionless; as one biographer
said, 'if they were windows of
his soul, their blinds were constantly
drawn;' his hair was iron-gray;
his natural 'make-up' was given a
distinguished air by the famous im-
perial goatee and the spreading, heavy,
mustachios, each curled to a sharp
point and stiffly waxed. He bore an
expression of extreme placidity, al-
most of sadness, an absent-minded look
as if harboring some serious
thought that dominated his environment;
pallid and apparently care-
worn, he was the living embodiment of
Shakespeare's lines, 'All sicklied
o'er with the pale cast of thought.'
Doubtless his prophetic soul uncon-
sciously glimpsed the gory aftermath,
lurking just beyond the glory of
the present halcyon days."
One is tempted to quote at greater
length but no quotation
can do justice to the address which
deserves a wider circulation
than it has been accorded in the
literary magazine from which
this extract is taken.
LITERARY CONTRIBUTIONS.
Reference has been made in preceding
pages to Mr. Ran-
dall's newspaper work. Following is a
list of his writings, in-
cluding books and his more important
contributions to periodicals
and other publications:
CONTRIBUTIONS TO OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY.
CHRONOLOGICALLY ARRANGED.
Blennerhassett. 1888. v. 1, p. 127-163.
The Separatist Society of Zoar. An
experiment in communism, from its
commencement to its conclusion. 1900. v.
8, p. 1-105.
Ohio in early history and during the
Revolution. 1902. v. 10, p. 395-434.
The Dunmore War. 1903. v. 11, p.
167-197.
Clark's Conquest of the Northwest.
1903 v. 12, p. 67-94.
*Pontiac's Conspiracy. 1903. v. 12, p.
410-437.
Ohio Day at the Louisiana Purchase
Exposition. 1905. v. 14, p. 101-120.
Tecumseh, the Shawnee Chief. 1906. v.
15, p. 419-499.
*This monograph was republished in Great
Events by Famous His-
torians, volume 13, pages 267 to 288.